The Role of Botanic Gardens in Conservation
Education: the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens and ex
situ Conservation

Abstract

Botanic gardens have a vital role in conservation
education. Their education programmes should be an intrinsic
component of their species conservation programmes They also
have a responsibility to aim to develop a general conservation
ethic, not just for plant conservation. So the aim of a botanic
gardens conservation education programme should be to produce
an emotive response, based on understanding, that results in a
commitment to act personally. One of the strengths of botanic
gardens is their ability to involve people directly in growing
and replanting threatened species. Botanic gardens provide the
means for the community to do their bit for conservation. The
Royal Tasmania Botanical Gardens plant conservation programme
is used as an example of an integrated conservation plan.

Introduction

In this paper I hope to demonstrate the vital role
that botanic gardens can play in community education for the conservation
of biodiversity, and the need for that effort to have a broad
environmental awareness aim.

I would like to begin by taking you on a journey
to look at the need for nature conservation and conservation education.

So ... everyone, get comfortable, because you are
about to leave on an adventure into space. Imagine you are seated
in a space shuttle ready to launch into space and travel to the
outer edge of our Solar System.

From the window of the shuttle you can see tall mountains
clothed in forests, a river flowing down a steep valley past the
launch site.

You can see a majestic eagle circling high in the
sky searching for unprotected prey on the ground below, and a
number of herbivorous animals are wandering the grassy areas near
the launch site.

You can also see village houses in the distance with
a small area of crops creating a vivid green patch amid the darker
green of the forest trees.

Hold on, its time for lift off ... 5 ... 4 ... 3
... 2 ... 1 ... Blast off ... As your shuttle lifts into the sky,
the animals and birds disappear from view, the river becomes a
thin silver line snaking through the rough green carpet of forest
... the mountains become small bumps on the landscape ... higher
and higher the shuttle travels and as you pass the Moon you can
look back at the planet you have left ... its a large round blue
ball with patches of green ... white clouds scud across the surface
... a blue ball floating in the blackness of space .... now your
shuttle accelerates out past Venus, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus,
Neptune and Pluto until you have reached the very edge of the
Solar System.

Beyond here is black ... cold ... and lonely emptiness.

Turn your ship to look back along the line of planets
we have passed. Of all those planets, only the distant blue Earth
has life, only Earth can support life, it is the only planet that
we can return to and survive on at the end of this journey. One
Earth, one Earth only. Somewhere between 30 million and 100 million
species depend on that planet for their existence, they have nowhere
else to go either. We are alone in this Solar System, probably
in this Galaxy, and possibly in many galaxies.

So let us head back down to our home planet and consider
what is happening on the planet Earth ... down past the other
planets, past the Moon, down through the clouds and back here
into this hall.

Down to Earth

Well what is happening on this unique planet?

At the moment, 1 in 10 of the known plant species
in the world are considered to be threatened.

60 000 higher plant species may be in danger
of extinction or serious genetic erosion by the middle of the
next century. Nearly half the world's species of animals and microorganisms
will be destroyed or severely threatened over the next 25 years.

On a global level, not since the end of the Cretaceous
Era some 65 million years ago, has biological diversity loss been
so rapid and so great as it is now. A section of rainforest the
size of ten city blocks disappears every minute.

25 billion tonnes of topsoil are washed or blown
from the world's farmhands every year, with about 77 billion tonnes
being lost in total. In 1980, degradation of cropland by erosion,
waterlogging, and salting was resulting in the irreversible loss
of some 6 million hectares world-wide each year. In addition
21 million hectares turns into desert each year.

The entire world climate is set to change in a way
that will significantly alter the lifestyle of most organisms
on the planet, caused by burning fossil fuels that increase the
carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. The greenhouse effect
constitutes the most serious disturbance of the biosphere yet
caused by humanity. To compensate for the build up of carbon
dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere it will be necessary to plant,
and successfully grow to maturity, 250 billion trees world-wide
in the next ten years.

All these problems are presently impacting directly
on the world's plant diversity and so therefore adversely affect
the likely success for plant conservation work carried out by
botanic gardens.

Many Australians, although aware of this type of
catastrophe, believe the destruction is all happening somewhere
else, partly as a result of media which tell us much about the
damage occurring in other places, while concentrating on highlighting
the unique, pristine and remarkable natural environment at home.
Well, in order to be cured, it is necessary to first admit the
problem.

In reality, Australians have one of the worst records
for species destruction. We have wiped out at least 18 mammal
species and 85-100 plant species since British settlement in 1788,
compared to 27 plant species in Europe and 74 in the USA over
the same 200 years.

We have 3250 plant species listed as rare or threatened.
That is about 1 in 6 plant species. Less than 15% of these species
are considered to be adequately protected in reserves.

Soil erosion is presently occurring across Australia
at a rate 10 times the natural rate. In areas such as the Burdekin
catchment in the State of Queensland, an area of 15 million hectares
supporting a large percentage of Queensland's cattle farming,
soil erosion is occurring at a rate 50 times natural levels.
Soil degradation in Australia, including wind and water erosion,
salinisation, acidification and loss of soil structure, is estimated
to cost $1.2 billion each year in lost agricultural productivity.
Perhaps as much as 60% of farmland requires treatment for soil
degradation.

More than 41 million hectares of forest have been
destroyed in Australia, including 75% of the nation's rain-forests.

In Tasmania, 25% of the State is protected in conservation
reserves of some kind. Most of that has been given the ultimate
status of World Heritage Area. Unfortunately, in the 190 years
prior to this green awakening, we had lost 90% of our grassy woodlands.

On an island State of just 100 000 sq km, with
a total people population of just 520 000, we have 136 plant
species presently listed as rare or threatened. Some 20% of our
plant species are endemic to the State.

In Tasmania we live in fear of skin cancer due to
excessive exposure to ultra-violet rays pouring through a hole
in the ozone layer, covering an area three times the size of Australia,
which periodically opens up over our heads - caused by the use
of chlorofluorocarbons, which ironically have been banned from
use in pressure sprays and plastic products in Tasmania for a
number of years.

Unfortunately, although a developed country, Australia
is not well endowed with botanic gardens. We have 27 gardens,
on a land mass of 7.7 million square kilometres (that is 285 000
square kilometres each) with 20 000 vascular plant species.
There are also approximately 50 000 non-vascular species
in Australia, of which little is known. 80% of the Australian
flora is endemic. Tasmania has 1630 higher plant species, 20%
of which are endemic to the State, and just one botanic garden.

So obviously, world-wide, for some species we need
conservation reserves, ex situ living collections, ex
situ propagation and then reintroductions, and community education,
support and action - an integrated approach to plant conservation,
if we are to reverse the steady march by species to extinction
and overcome the habit of environmental abuse.

The Educational Programme

The education programmes in botanic gardens are
important components of what botanic gardens can provide to the
plant conservation cause.

It is estimated that 150 million people visit botanic
gardens around the world each year.

As stated in the Botanic Gardens Conservation
Strategy: "In view of the many millions of members of
the public who visit botanic gardens each year, it is important
that very strenuous efforts are made to interest and if possible
involve them in the conservation role of the gardens". It
would also, in view of what is happening to the planet, and the
intersecting effects of environmental degradation, seem prudent
to put a concerted effort into instilling a general conservation
ethic in that audience.

Education in botanic gardens should not simply be
the labelling of plants, or just letting the public know what
the botanic gardens are doing. It does not have as its prime
objective to help create the climate that will allow more adequate
resources to be allocated to conserving plant diversity, although
this will be a spin-off of an effective awareness programme.

Conservation education in botanic gardens should
have as its prime objective the reduction of the number of species
that will in future require intervention against extinction.

We are aiming for the development of appropriate
attitudes, and concern for the whole natural environment, resulting
in the desire to contribute positively through lifestyle change
and direct action to solve the problems with which we are faced.
The importance of personal actions and consumer choices in shaping
our society is often underestimated. The world is shaped as a
result of an accumulation of the daily decisions of ordinary people.

A look at what has caused plant extinctions in Australia
in the past confirms this: 44 species from agricultural activities,
34 species from grazing, 3 species as a result of urban and industrial
development and 4 species from weed competition. The threats
to those endangered species presently facing extinction include
57 threatened by roadworks, another 57 by competition from weeds,
85 due to their existing low numbers, 17 as a result of horticultural
collection, 7 by introduced disease and 3 species by railway
development, (Leigh and Briggs 1992). It can be seen that in the
majority of cases, the decisions and actions of people have impacted
on the species of the world which are now extinct or threatened,
and are now the subject of attention from botanic gardens. It
is only through reducing the pressure that we can stem the flow
of extinctions.

The aim of changing lifestyles raises a curious dilemma
when looking at how an education programme should, for example,
approach explaining the importance of plants. Many programmes
emphasise the useful value of plants - we build houses, make medicines,
make fires, make clothes, gaze in raptured wonderment at them,
etc. The Pacific yew (Taxus brevifolia) in Canada, is
a wonderful example of the secrets locked up in the genetic banks
of ancient forests. What better argument for plant conservation
than the anti-cancer drug Taxol which is produced from the bark
of the yew? Or the potential anti-Aids drug being developed from
Australia's blackbean tree?

However, it can be a contradictory argument - that
is, we need to save species so that people can use them - care
must be taken that this approach does not encourage a community
of resource junkies, people who believe that the natural environment
is theirs to conquer and use, and that the only good plant is
one that can be used by humankind. The groves of Pacific yews
that have been stripped of their precious bark by poachers, and
their continuing destruction during forestry operations, demonstrates
that the utilization argument alone is not sufficient. One of
the important understandings we need to develop is that we share
the planet with other life forms which have a right to exist independently
of any benefit to us.

Development of a conservation attitude must come
first, so that wise choices can then be made about using plants.

It is necessary to understand the importance of plants
as the foundation for all life on Earth:

They provide oxygen for all other life on the planet;

They convert sunlight into a usable energy;

They provide diverse ecosystems and habitats for
native species;

They keep the soil in place and biologically active;

They convert and store carbon dioxide; and

They keep rivers, streams and underground water
supplies clean.

Unfortunately this foundation of life now has one
in ten of its bricks eroding fast, already has many bricks missing,
and desperately requires some active preventative maintenance.
Everybody in the community has a role to play in this repair
work.

Like a full-back in a football team, the Conservation
Strategy, and consequently botanic gardens generally, concentrates
on tackling the worst cases of endangerment first, taking on the
species that have already slipped through all the other defensive
moves.

From an educational point of view it is necessary
to create a concern for the natural environment as a whole before
the possible extinction of one species in the system can be approached
as, and understood to be, an important issue. If the proper base
of understanding and empathy is in place, concern for endangered
species and a desire to act will often be an automatic follow-on
from the education programme. We will have tackled the species
before it begins its run downfield.

It is important that once a desire to act, to begin
the repair work, is awakened, we should provide opportunities
to do so. "Action at a local level is often the first step
toward a global solution".

One of the great strengths of botanic gardens is
that we have the facilities and expertise to involve people in
the positive action of growing plants as part of their personal
effort to reverse the trends of:

Loss of biodiversity;

The increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere;

Soil degradation;

Poor water quality;

Loss of habitats;

Provision of shade from ultra-violet rays.

The educational aspects of conservation should be
seen to be as important as the physical collection and holding
of endangered species in a garden collection, because the educational
role is predominantly one of prevention through the creation of
a concerned and aware community.

Recovery plans for individual species obviously have
a beneficial effect for that individual species. They also provide
a unique opportunity for environmental education - that is the
opportunity for people to act personally to rectify a specific
environmental issue. Recovery projects are inspirational events
because they do not just prevent the problem from getting worse,
they actually make the situation better! However, it is all very
well for botanic gardens, universities and conservation departments
to go out, collect , grow and replant threatened species - but
if the local community is not sympathetic to what is being undertaken
then the long-term success of replanting is undermined. As Mark
Bovey wrote in the Tropical Africa Botanic
Garden Bulletin for December 1990:

"Wherever you live, conservation of natural
resources only succeeds when the local people understand the need
for, and positively support, the measures designed to achieve
that result."

This is where another strength of botanic gardens
is important. We are not generally considered to be threatening
institutions. Gardens are places of beauty and peace. We are
not often wanting to proclaim "landgrab" reserves.
We do not threaten traditional lifestyles, only enhance them by
repairing barren land, conserving traditional plant medicines,
saving staple food crops and so on. We can involve people in
our efforts to improve the plight of species. We can listen to
and respond to the needs of local communities when designing recovery
programmes. We are "people-friendly" as well as "plant-friendly".

Any species recovery plans should therefore always
take the opportunity to involve the local community, schools or
special interest groups in the activity. The earlier these groups
are involved, the better.

Community involvement in conservation programmes
in botanic gardens changes the environmental debate from "hands
off" to "get your hands dirty and do something about
it yourself." Many millions of people in the world consider
gardening to be an essential personally creative pastime. Many
millions more depend on their ability to grow plants to ensure
their personal survival. Involving the community can tap into
this affinity with plants by allowing people to plant alongside
the botanical and horticultural experts.

This personal involvement is more likely to inspire
some of the lifestyle changes that are required if environmental
abuse is to be changed to environmental sustainability.

For an education programme to be successful in the
areas spoken about there has to be, in many cases, a change of
attitude within botanic gardens management and staff.

Julia Willison of the BGCI stated, also in the Tropical
Africa Gardens Bulletin: "Educators need to have a higher
profile in botanic gardens and arboreta if the conservation of
the world's biodiversity is to be effective" (Willison 1990).

A commitment to giving education programmes a high
priority in practical ways is necessary, such as opening the living
collection and seed banks to the education programmes for propagation
classes and community planting projects, by including educators
in the planning of new developments, by developing areas in the
garden specifically for conservation education activities, and
by informing and involving the community as a matter of course
when undertaking conservation work in their area. This of course
requires the education programme to be out in, working with, and
understanding the local community, and not restricted to the physical
environment of the garden.

Education programmes should be designed to lead on
and direct participants to other environmentally friendly lifestyle
choices, such as recycling, energy conservation, water conservation,
and so on.

Botanic gardens should also set environmental behaviour
standards by example:

Buildings should be energy-efficient and landscape-integrated;

Materials should be recycled, plant material should
be composted and mulched, environmentally friendly pest controls
trialled and used, recycled paper products used, to name a few
possibilities.

When community conservation education is considered
to be an intrinsic component of botanic gardens conservation programmes,
then success in the vital race to protect biodiversity is a possibility.
I hope for the sake of the planet, all gardens and their education
staff, with their communities, join the rescue team.

The Royal Tasmania Botanical Gardens's
Conservation Programme

The following information relates to the Royal Tasmania
Botanical Gardens (RTBG). I hope it will show that no matter
how small we are (with a size of 3 acres and a budget of less
than Aus$1 000 000) we can all perform an important
role. By tackling the plants at home we hope we are having a
beneficial effect on biodiversity generally.

The Australian National Botanic Gardens (ANBG) hold
a collection of Tasmania species, including some of those at risk,
and many species are grown in major botanic gardens in the United
Kingdom (such as Kew and Edinburgh). Due to a period of gardening
fashion last century, some Tasmania species also feature in home
gardens in the UK. The task before us is still a large one, but
step by step we are tackling it.

In 1990 the Gardens held only twelve native threatened
species in its living collection. A Tasmania Section has since
been established in the Gardens. This is the first concerted
effort to display native Tasmania species since the early 1800s.
The area is small, but contains a cross-section of Tasmania species
displayed in habitat types. Visitors are able to walk from the
highlands of the State through the rain-forests to the coast,
in a distance of 100 metres. The Section displays in excess of
350 different species, some 53 of which are rare, vulnerable or
endangered. That is a substantial increase on the 1990 figures
in the representation of species at risk. All plants in the Section
are provenanced, using a system of recording compatible to that
used at the Australian National Botanic Gardens, and records are
shared with other gardens through the Australian Network for Plant
Conservation.

The public-awareness aspect of a living collection
is the strong point of our ex situ collection. A large
percentage of the 325 000 people who visit the Gardens each
year will encounter the Tasmania Section. Much of Tasmania is
very difficult to visit. Therefore it is equally as difficult
to visit an endangered species in the wild. The Tasmania Section
allows people to meet an endangered species regardless of their
physical ability.

The site has been developed to highlight the issues
associated with species conservation generally, as well as providing
information about the individual species displayed.

Because of the limitation of space at the present
Garden site, we are unable to create a garden that can be considered
useful as a genetic bank on its own, because it cannot hold a
sufficiently wide genetic sample. But in cooperation with other
land-managing authorities, for example councils, schools, and
in some cases individuals, we are hoping to collectively create
collections of significant conservation value, that is, a large
number of genetically diverse specimens.

For example, two schools have recently completed
a joint project as part of our Threatened Species in Schools Program,
to create an ex situ collection of the threatened species
Eucalyptus risdonii. The students of Blackmans Bay Primary
School collected seeds from the wild, germinated them, grew them
up and then, with the help of students at the Rudolf Steiner School,
planted the resultant 100 seedlings in the Steiner School grounds
adjacent to a local council flora park. This collection is now
recorded at the Royal Tasmania Botanical Gardens on a school-planting
database. Six other schools have now adopted the Risdon peppermint
and are working on creating similar school collections of the
species.

We now have a regular collecting and propagating
programme. General collections are made for the Tasmania Section.
From the material collected more than 200 species have been successfully
propagated from cuttings and seeds.

We have made a start on the collection and propagation
of some of our species at most risk including: Carex tasmanica
(nationally endangered, with 10 small populations in Tasmania),
Ranunculus prasinus (a Tasmania endemic reduced to two
populations of less than 200 plants), Phebalium daviesii
(which has a total wild population of just 5 plants, located in
a small patch of remnant forest on farmland, and was listed as
'presumed extinct' until rediscovered in 1990), and Danthonia
popinensis (a grass restricted to a roadside verge of about
200 metres length). Work with these species is specifically aimed
at producing material suitable for reintroduction as part of species
recovery plans.

The species recovery plans are being coordinated
through a group called the Endangered Plants Recovery Committee,
which was initiated and is convened by the Royal Tasmania Botanical
Gardens, but draws members from the Department of Parks Wildlife
and Heritage, Forestry Commission, City Councils, the University
of Tasmania Plant Sciences and Environmental Studies Departments,
the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWFN) and other conservation groups.

The committee provides expertise and effort from
a wide range of fields. Funding has been provided by the Australian
National Parks and Wildlife Service Endangered Species Unit, through
the Department of Parks Wildlife and Heritage. Recovery teams,
convened by the Department of Parks Wildlife and Heritage, have
now been formed and work is progressing toward reintroductions
of a number of the species mentioned. Community education and
involvement are part of all the recovery plans.

We are now working as contractors for the Department
of Roads and Transport. In situations where endangered species
are threatened by new road works, and realignment is not possible,
we are called in to remove and/or propagate the species for return
to a suitable site nearby once roadworks are completed. Rescue
plans are written for each case. Our first rescue involved Eryngium
ovinum, endangered in Tasmania and thought to be restricted
to one site on the east coast. Searches carried out as part of
the rescue found two other significant populations. Involvement
of community groups such as the Friends of the Gardens and the
Society for Growing Australian Plants is under consideration for
replanting time.

We have also been involved in a project funded by
the WWFN to restore the habitat of an endangered bird species,
the forty spotted pardalote. The forty spotted pardalote is endemic
to Tasmania with a present total population of 2500 birds. They
are totally dependent on the presence of Eucalyptus viminalis,
manna gum. This tree has suffered severely as a result of forest
clearing for farming. We have grown 2500 manna gums which, as
part of an environmental awareness programme led by a project
officer employed by the Department of Parks Wildlife and Heritage,
have been given to landowners to plant as shelter belts, thereby
extending and restoring habitat for the birds without having to
create reserves. Reaction and support for this project have been
extremely positive. Work has been carried out with school students,
who have also sown seeds of manna gums and planted seedlings in
their school grounds.

The RTBG has a very constructive role to play in
these species recovery and habitat restoration programmes. Like
all botanic gardens, it has the facilities and skills to undertake
productive propagation research and cultivation. It has strong
established links with the community and therefore a large education
audience. It now has a commitment to native species conservation
and conservation education.

Just to balance out the doomsday list given for Australia
earlier in this presentation - there are a number of organisations
funded by our Federal Government that have community education
and involvement as their prime objective. Greening Australia
- including their Greening Schools Programme and the One Billion
Trees Project, Save the Bush (as in Forest), Landcare - including
Landcare for Children in a number of States, all aim to rectify
deforestation by actively involving farmer groups, school children
and community groups in environmental repair projects. Rotary
in Australia and internationally have two major projects underway
-"Trees for Survival" and "Preserve Planet Earth"
and, apart from promoting and encouraging environmental action,
they have also donated 600 shade houses to schools and community
groups around the country in the couple of years since the programmes
were started. The Society for Growing Australian Plants recently
adopted a national commitment to environmental education. A national
biodiversity conservation strategy has been drafted by the Commonwealth
Department of the Environment, Arts, Sport and Recreation. The
Australian Network for Plant Conservation has been established
and is being coordinated by the Australian National Botanic Gardens.
Non-government conservation groups are also doing their bit,
as are State government conservation and environment departments.

So Australian gardens are not working alone, but
we do have particular skills and knowledge to bring to the work,
and we have a particular audience to deliver the message to.

There are many pathways to environmental enlightenment.
Our education programme uses a multitude of methods in the pursuit
of promoting conservation awareness:

Children can be seen lying on the lawn pretending
to be leaves and happily photosynthesizing, or visiting the inside
of a leaf to discover the secret of the chloroplasts;

They can take a "world tour" around the
Gardens to study adaptations of plants in different communities
from different countries;

Explore the differences between trees by giving
them a hug;

Go on field trips to collect seeds, and then grow
and plant native species in school grounds and in community parks,

Revegetate areas to create new habitats to help
save endangered animals and birds;

Or grow endangered species to create ex situ
collections in the community.

A number of teaching kits highlight various themes
of environmental education related to the Gardens and plant conservation.

Adults can come along to an Endangered Species Propagation
Workshop, visit an endangered species in the wild and be involved
in reintroduction/recovery projects.

Seminars are conducted for teachers, parents and
trainee teachers.

Interpretive publications and signs , displays and
audiovisuals highlight the need for all people to be involved
in plant conservation.

'January in the Gardens', a month of activities for
adults, including propagation workshops and field trips, is offered
each year, and lectures are given at local community organisations
and gardening society meetings.

We are involved in the revival of Arbor Week in Tasmania,
with an emphasis on knowing, growing, planting and protecting
indigenous species. An Arbor Week Picnic was held in the Gardens
in September, attracting over 2000 schoolchildren who were involved
in a variety of activities, including storytelling, dance and
musical events and planting the endangered Carex tasmanica
(curley sedge) on the Domain Reserve adjacent to the Gardens.

Our Friends of the Gardens are involved in caring
for our collection of native plants for reintroduction programmes
and habitat restoration projects. They have access to the living
collection, native and exotic, to propagate plants to sell and
raise funds for the Garden. They are also involved in trialling
native species for use in home gardens.

We hope that, at the end of the process, all those
who have been involved will better understand what is going on,
their responsibilities, their ability to contribute directly to
correcting past mistakes, and will actually have been involved
in environmental action and then, as a result, will choose to
live more lightly on the Earth to the benefit of all the species
that share the planet.